Becoming the Doom Slayer: How to kill everything in sight as a One-Man army

To ease you into this whole ship outfitting process, we will begin with shields, as they are (in my opinion) the easiest to understand.

First, to differentiate them by class, we have S-sized and M-sized. S-sized shields can be put onto S ships, and M shields can be put onto M ships. S shields are more specialised into shield recharge with lower capacity and higher shield delay, while M shields have much more capacity and slightly lower delay at the expense of recharge.
This is mainly because of the general size and playstyle of S and M ships, with S ships being usually much nimbler and smaller than M ships and thus being able to just not get hit as often, while M ships are much bigger and usually more sluggish, meaning they need more capacity as they might not be able to start recharging fast enough.

Now, to seperate them by race, AKA the creator... thing, idk.

• First we have the Argon shield generators. Just like in 8.0, they are still rather average, with pretty high capacity, okay-ish recharge rate and a 3rd longest recharge delay of 15 seconds for S shields and 13 seconds for M shields. This, overall, makes it a fine, albeit slow-ish, choice for a shield. Don't really have much else to say here, soo...

• Boron shields are pretty darn good, if i do say so myself. 10.5 seconds of delay (9.1 for M), recharge rate comparable to the ARG shield, slightly lower capacity than the ARG one. This makes it a very good all-round option as it has both the capacity and a low enough delay to prove effective enough in most engagements, whether that be Hit&Runs, dogfights or sniper duels.
  Overall, if you're having a hard time picking between optimising capacity, recharge rate or recharge delay, this thing's got a little bit of everything to make it a great allrounder. However, as we all say, allround doesnt really specialise in anything, which is why it can start lacking in certain areas. And that is why we have more shields to cover!

• Paranid shield, its motto is mainly to recharge the fastest, which it does so before the TER one even starts recharging. It also has an average-low delay of 10 seconds to boot (8 for M). However, it does lose a considerable amount of capacity to reach those recharge metrics. This makes it a great option in somewhat intense dogfights where recharge rate matters much more than just capacity. But, if your battle is a bit too intense, you might start noticing that it just has a bit too long of a delay because you keep being hit despite everything. That is why the next shield is...

• The Split shield's main purpose is to start recharging first. That's basically it. It sports the worst recharge rate and the worst capacity of all. However, as it only has 4 seconds of delay (2.5 for M), it is excellent in regaining at least some shielding back, especially if its very hard to evade incoming shots. This gives it an edge in fights where you're either getting shot more often or you're up against more precise weapons, as it has a low enough delay to help you survive just that bit longer.

• Teladi shields are bricks. That means that they LOVE absorbing anything, but forgot that they can recharge. It also means that they can absolutely take any insult and barely recover from it. It ALSO means-
  If you didn't get the memo, they have the highest capacity with abysmal recharge capabilities, so bad that it takes the shield 44 seconds in total to get back to full capacity... Yup, you read that right. BUT, they somehow only have the 2nd longest recharge delay of 16.5 seconds (13.3 for M). Yeah, there's something even slower than Teladi. And you will soon meet them...
  But to put a conclusion here, if you are the type to do Hit&Runs with very long waiting times in between volleys, thus requiring you to absorb a bunch of damage, this shield is for you.

• Now for the extremely slow one, we have the Terran shield... they got hit with the nerf bat, HARD. 2nd highest capacity, above average recharge rate, but the WORST delay of 18.5 (16.6 for M) seconds... Yup, this thing is officially slower to respond than the Teladi shield. And it shows.
  I'd recommend you never bring this thing to dogfights because it will just never recharge unless you flee. However, as it does have a good recharge rate and similar capacity to that of the TEL one, it can be used as a more optimised shield for non-dogfighty battles as it still recharges faster than the TEL one, needing ~33 seconds to get back to full.

• The last shield on our list is the Frontier shield. Now, i wont compare the S-sized version of this shield because there is only 1 tier, Mk1 AKA the weakest tier, but the M version has all the tiers so i'll be comparing that one.
  This one is pretty similar to the TER one, with both having the same capacity. However, the Frontier one trades recharge rate for a much lower delay of 5 seconds, making its role somewhat similar to the SPL one, just with much more capacity than it and a higher delay.

So that's all the widely accessible shields out of the way. In short:

• ARG: Average, but slow to respond
  
• BOR: Great allround, probably will fit most situations
  
• PAR: Recharges the fastest, great for dogfights
  
• SPL: Responds the fastest, great if youre getting hit often
  
• TEL: Highest capacity, great for quick engagements vs hard to evade or hard hitting weapons
  
• TER: Sacrifices some TEL capacity and delay for more recharge, on par with TEL
  
• Frontier: Basically SPL, but with more delay and Terran capacity

The shields i haven't covered are the Envoy, Frontier Mk5 and XEN shields mainly because they are exclusive to 1-2 ships and its easier to cover them with the ships than seperately.

But, with the shields out of the way, its time we take a look at some engines as you will probably need them i think. Not sure, but just in case :D

This section is all about engines, Combat engines specifically. As of 9.0 all S/M engines (excluding Envoy engines) are now compatible with every non-Xenon ship in the game. This means that those BOR and Frontier engines can FINALLY be used elsewhere, but you'll see why because of this compatibility, both of these engines are pretty lacking.

Also to mention thrusters, there are All-Round and Combat thrusters. All-Round provide higher strafe speed and acceleration which in turn reduces drift, while Combat provides higher steering rates, making a ship turn faster. Pick All-Round if you're having issues with drift and take Combat if you're having trouble with turning your ship fast enough. Simple as that really. Now we can go to engines!

• We're gonna start with Argon engines. The S versions of these provide somewhat sub-par cruise speed, above average max travel speed, below average travel acceleration and have the longest travel charge time of 6 seconds, BUT they have the best boost speed and acceleration of all engines, with acceleration big enough to bring a ship to max boost speed in about 2-4 seconds (which is FAST). Additionally, they have the fastest boost recharge, sitting at a good 1.2 percents every second (around 83 seconds to fully recharge).

  However, to offset this these engines have the lowest boost capacity which is at only 12 seconds (10 seconds if all-round). This means that you have to be a bit more careful about boost management so that you dont run out of it. Still, the near-instant boost you get is now unlike any other engine.

  The M version of these is rather similar to the S version, with the most notable changes being: 15 seconds boost capacity and a RIDICULOUS travel charge time of 8 SECONDS!!!
  So, if you want to evade shots with minimal boost button holding, these engines will NOT betray you (except if your boost management is not that good yet).

• BOR engines are now... the worst engines you can install. Straight up. There is virtually nothing positive about them. They have the least standard thrust, the worst boost AND travel acceleration and the worst boost speed and recharge rate. The only "good" things are that it has no travel charge time, it has the highest travel speed and that it has a rather big boost capacity of 22 seconds (28.6 for M).

  However, the absence of travel charge time doesnt really matter since you got TER engines with their high travel acceleration just circumventing that advantage and the boost capacity might as well mean nothing when you have to use a LOT of it AND it takes an eternity to recharge. So unfortunately, the BOR engines are by far the worst engines for combat and probably for most other tasks as well. Just, don't bother with this engine. I wish it was better though.

• Next up are Paranid engines. These engines take on the role of the argon engines pre-7.5 and are pretty solid in all areas. The areas where they excel at more though is in cruise speed and travel speed, providing more cruise and travel speed/accel at the cost of a slower and potentially less effective boost. Speaking of boost, this guy has a boost capacity of 14.3 seconds (12 if all-round), gives around 20% less boost speed, around 40% less boost acceleration and 0.8 percents per second recharge with combat ones (125 seconds to fully recharge) or 0.7 %/s with all-round ones(136 seconds to fully recharge).

  As for the M version, the changes from the S one are barely better travel speed/accel from argon ones, 18 seconds boost capacity (15 if all-round) and a 6-second travel charge time.
  Overall, these engines are essentially above average all-rounders with exceptional travel speed. you can't really go wrong with these, but if youre looking for something a bit more special, you should keep looking.

• Fourth is the Split engines. These focus all their power to bring the best max speed and boost speed, but as a consequence have horrible travel speed. The boost in question is a right in the middle 17.5 seconds boost capacity (14 if all-round), boost speed in between Paranid and Argon ones, boost accel similar to the Teladi one and a boost recharge similar to Paranid engines.

  In general, these engines give the absolute highest cruise speed of all engines known to mankind today and give pretty damn reasonable boost at the cost of horrific travel drive and a hidden stat of making the ship drift a fair bit more. If you want the SPEED and don't mind the added drift (or you love the thrill that drift introduces), these will be great engines.

• 6th on the list is the Teladi engines. They have the essentially the same cruise speed as Argon engines (there MIGHT be a 1 m/s difference if youre lucky), have even less boost speed than Paranid ones, similar boost acceleration than Paranid ones, slightly faster boost recharge than Paranid (about a 10 second difference) and they have the biggest boost capacity of all engines, a whopping 26.3 seconds of boosting (22 if all-round). Also they have better travel acceleration and 4 seconds of travel charge time at the cost of having worse travel speed.

  M version has 31.6 seconds boost capacity and a 6-second travel charge time.
  Overall, Teladi engines provide a reasonably smoother flight performance and have a much more sustainable boost, even though they might not have as much speed. This still does mean that boost management is less of an issue. So, if youre having problems keeping that boost meter above 10%, take these boys.

• The 7th thingamajigs are the Terran engines. These give the worst speed, similar boost speed as Teladi engines, 2nd biggest boost capacity (S: 22 s, M: 27 s), the worst boost accel, very good boost recharge (Combat: 90 seconds to 100%, Allround: 100 seconds to 100%) and the worst travel speed (but the best travel acceleration and 2nd best travel charge time).

  With just this it might not be that clear on what these engines excel at except at running away in travel very quickly. This is because, just like with the split engines, there is a hidden stat which is the total opposite of the Split engines AKA these engines noticeably reduce drift. This means that if you put these engines on drifty ships, you will notice that those ships will drift quite a bit less, meaning that you have reasonably more control over the ship's heading. If you combine this perk with its lenghty, but slow boost, you notice that this engine excels at control, agility and manoeuvrability, thus potentially making you a much bigger pain in the ass to your enemies since you'll be a fly. A slow fly, but still a fly. With teeth. That contain poison. And the fly can fire a death beam. And can-

• Frontier engines are unfortunately in the same ballpark as BOR engines, but at least they are better than the BOR ones. I unfortunately don't have much to say here, so onwards to the next section!
  I do wish this was a more "burst" option, as an alternative to the TER engine... a girl can dream, i suppose.

With the engines out of the way, its time we take a look at some weapons, because how else are you gonna kill stuff? By ramming? Sorry, this isn't X3 where ramming is the deadliest thing ever, you actually have to click that mouse now if you want to kill stuff.

This section is not gonna go into detail into each weapon. For that, i suggest you check out this site, the Ego wiki: https://wiki.egosoft.com:1337/X4%20Foundations%20Wiki/Manual%20and%20G
Or ask on the Egosoft Discord, don't have a link for that one though, you can fetch that one yourself
(My username there is Hih if you wanna ask questions more directly)

This section is instead gonna cover all the available weapons in a short enough description for each without giving too many numbers so that you can easily understand the function of each weapon.

Before we begin though, i have to go through a few general things about weapons quickly so you have a rough idea of what to expect:

• All weapons either generate heat, have a clip system or do both
  
• All weapons greatly differ in heat cooling rate, giving each weapon a different feel heat-wise
  
• Generally, Mk1 deals less damage than Mk2, but has better heat management than Mk2
  
• Some weapons are only available in 1 size, this will be marked with a prefix ("S" or "M") on the weapon name
  
• Some M-sized weapons have the ability to disrupt Capital shield regeneration, thus putting those shields on a cooldown. This will be mentioned for the ones capable of it

And that's it for the general stuff

We will first start with general weapons, these weapons are what i consider to be good in most/all situations. This is most likely because of a fire rate higher than 1, fires a single projectile, has adequate speed, has low enough bullet dispersion etc.

1. Pulse Laser: This is the most precise thing ever, and i mean it. It is the only weapon without any spread whatsoever, meaning its gonna hit the same atom with every single shot. To pair with this, it also has great projectile speed of 5000 m/s and shoots relatively fast with a 3.5 km range. Damage-wise, it is of course rather weak, but considering its accuracy, it is still quite a good weapon.
   There is a TER variant of it that offers slightly more damage and a projectile speed of 6500 m/s at the expense of slightly less range (3.3 km) and that it shoots a bit slower.
   If you're having trouble with precision and thus can't reliably hit targets, this is a great option for you.
2. Bolt Repeater: You will probably pick this one if all the other weapons just don't quite fit with your preferred fight style. This is because its very average. Good damage, sub-par accuracy and fast ROF. Overall, its a pretty well all-round weapon capable of destroying stuff potentially easily. It's kinda a "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" type of weapon. So yeah, very reliable.

3: Neutron Gatling: This weapon has finally gotten good and i'm all for it! :D
Anyways, this weapon heavily leans towards simply killing smth as fast as possible without overheating as it has pretty high burst damage without it being like a Plasma Cannon. This does come at the cost of, well, pretty bad heat management, meaning you'll have to be a bit more weary of that little heat bar to the right a bit more than usual. Additionally it has a quite noticeable spread, albeit it's ~2x lower than the spread of The Great Shotguns™, so you can actually hit something above sneezing range. Overall, if you're willing to put up with the higher heat generation for that sweet, sweet dakka, then, you'll have quite some fun with this.

4. Proton Barrage: A Terran version of the Bolt Repeater which is basically an advanced version of it. It's increased damage and speed makes it more accurate and deadlier than the Bolt Repeater at the expense of a shorter range of 2.3 km. This essentially makes it a better Bolt Repeater, but as its limited to Terran ships, you wont really be using it much if you dont want to take a Terran ship. Still, extremely good, would recommend if you can't really choose between some of the other, more specialised weapons. The M version also triggers capital shield delay.
5. Blast Mortar: This weapon has seen a drastic change in its function from 8.0. Like, it doesn't even fulfill the same purpose as before.
   So, this weapon is kind of like flak weaponry, since it has exclusively AOE damage and it explodes either upon reaching max range or, if you have a target, upon reaching the target.
   This makes it seem like it's pretty good at intercepting those pesky mosquito-like S ships, right? Well, unfortunately its timed detonation is inaccurate enough that it's gonna completely miss 50% of its shots, which makes its damage output pretty inconsistent. One time you may be having the time of your life having every single shot hit your target with respectable damage, while another time you're basically sneezing at the enemy as the things just won't connect. It also has a clip of 10 shots with a pretty lengthy reload too, so it's better to make those shots count, but that's a bit hard as 50% of your shots don't want to hit your enemy and so on...
   However, if it's able to hit, it deals respectable damage, so if you think you can mitigate the weapon's inconsistency, then go ham! Also, you get no extra damage for direct hits, so you don't have to aggressively wait for that "perfect opportunity" as much.
6. Phase Gun: This is the only boron weapon that deals good hull damage, and it is a bit better at it then a Bolt Repeater. If its hitting shields though, it's worse than a Pulse Laser. The M sized variant of this is the Phase Cannon which slightly reduces ROF for more damage.

With General weapons done and dusted, we go towards the specialised weapons. These weapons usually excel in certain circumstances and either provide high burst damage and low sustained damage, provide high damage at a specific range, provide special effects or are missile launchers.

As some of these weapon can be grouped together as they're quite similar to each other, i will be introducing then in groups, starting with:

1. The Great Shotguns™: These weapons deal damage via multiple pellets
with each shot, requiring you to be close to your target to deal respectable damage.

• 1.1. Shard Battery: This is a more unique weapon as it is in the small group of weapons which do not generate heat. Yup, this thing will never generate a speck of heat because, uhh... it fires kinetic projectiles instead of energy? Doesn't matter anyhow.
  What does matter is its clip, which counterbalances the lack of heat generation, as it is rather slow-firing with a somewhat lengthy clip reload, meaning it's better to make your shots count as otherwise, you'll be facing the wrath of patience.
  The lack of heat generation also means 2 things:
  • It can be added on any ship to serve as additional damage without further reducing heat cooldown from other weapons,
    
  • there is no damage difference between burst and sustain as there is no heat to lower sustained damage.
  And, to remind you, this is a shotgun, meaning you have to be within sneezing range to be effective. So, if you have no trouble getting...

  Close and Intimate~

  While also wanting to not care about heat as much, then you'll adopt this little baby since it's just so irresistible!
  To also add onto this, this weapon is great for ships which have increased heat generation like most Split ships because, well, you'll be ignoring that penalty.

• 1.2. Tau Accelerator: This one removes the Shard Battery clip, reintroduces heat and increases burst damage. This gives it the disadvantage of actually having lower sustained damage, AKA you have to keep track of your body temperature again. Although, why does this shotgun generate heat, while the other doesn't? Do the Split have some special thing in their tech which gives damage at the expense of heat? I guess we'll never know...
  Either way, even better weapon than the 1st Great Shotgun™ if you can manage your heat well enough.

• 1.3: Plasma Cannon: I put this weapon under this group mainly because its spread is even higher than that of the Shotguns, despite it only firing 1 pellet per shot.
  This is your very focused heavy-hitter, with a slow fire rate, but high damage per shot, thus making it perfect for zooming into battle, firing 2-3 volleys and zipping outta there.
  Its very high spread can make things difficult though, as that alone makes its effective range much lower against S ships, despite its rather long range. Basically, if you're happier zipping in and out with high damage rather than dogfighting, then you'll have no issue with this weapon. Just also note its moderate heat generation if you're firing rather often, as that can sneak up on you without you noticing. The M version also triggers capital shield delay.

2. The Great Ship Disablers™: These weapons apply various effects on hit ships, with those effects being the same for each weapon here for some reason. The effects are: Disabled Travel and Boost for 10-15 seconds, disabled weapons for 1-2 seconds and reduced steering acceleration for 2-4 seconds

• 2.1. Ion Blaster: This is an ARG-only, anti-shipboard computer weapon. Why do i say that? Simple, it:
  • strips shields away with barely any hull damage,
    
  • disables Travel and Boost for 15 seconds while also impairing thrusters and disabling weapons for 1-2 seconds.
  You see why it's an anti-shipboard computer weapon now? It makes you an absurd annoyance to deal with and them incredibly annoyed at you for using one of the soft stunlock weapons (it's not a hard stunlock as you can still, you know, move around). Now, i havent used this specific weapon much, but if the Ion Gatling is anything to go by, then this is also incredibly unfair for whoever is on the receiving end of it. Also, this weapon doesn't generate heat, making it excellent for the same reasons as with the Shard Battery, just with ship disruption rather than ship deletion. Pick this to trivialise 1v1-s and remove survivability to select enemies cuz no boosting allowed! The M version also triggers capital shield delay.

• 2.2. S Ion Gatling: This weapon is a Bolt Repeater which excels at stripping shields away and disabling a bunch of ship functions. Yup, you heard that right. With this, you can disable boost and travel drive for a bit and thrusters and weapons for a very short bit. And yes, this means it's an incredibly good disabler and shield stripper.
  I haven't even tried it that extensively and it already is really good. The only downside is that its MUCH worse against hull, effectively being 3x less effective on hull than on shields. But hey, that's a valid tradeoff for such a... ship control weapon basically. So yeah, if you wanna invalidate a ship (and its shields) while you're firing at it, this is a beautiful masterpiece

• 2.3. S Arc Gun: This weapon differs from the rest in this group as its effect is actually different from the rest, instead disabling weapons for a bit longer! This makes it the better anti-weapon weapon as its disabling effect lasts a bit longer, although that is only true if it hits an S ship as the effect lasts for 3 seconds in that case, while with M ships it only lasts 1 second. Aside from that it isn't really that special, its somewhat slow-firing and isn't as damage impressive as the rest. It does feel more accurate, so there's that.

• 2.4. M Ion Atomizer: This is basically an AOE Ion Blaster, as it has AOE damage (more effective vs shields than hull) and a scarily accurate timed detonation because of course the Boron have the strongest stuff now for some reason. This makes it very strong against basically anything as its timed detonation is so accurate that you wont even care about aiming at 3km range. Why? Why is it so accurate?
  Also it's ship-disrupting properties just make it too strong and very unfair for whoever is targeted by one. So, wanna be annoyingly strong? This is great then. It also triggers capital shield delay.

3. The Great Railguns™: These weapons feature very high projectile speeds, high accuracy and great burst damage at the expense of typically having high recovery times, whether that be in the form of heat cooldown or clip reload. These are usually excellent as support weapons, with some potentially being fineish as main weapons. Additionally, while their projectiles may look like a beam, they ARE NOT beams.

• 3.1: Mass Driver: This is a PAR-only weapon perfect for people who like to stay out of direct battle and snipe enemies since it has a range that is even larger than capital weaponry (a staggering 12 (14 if M) kilometers!!!) and it also comes with a zoom effect to help snipers snipe. Also instead of clicking to shoot, you have to hold it first to charge the weapon and then you can release the click to deliver heavy damage from another country. Also also this weapon features initial heat, which only gives you 1 shot

[/b]before overheating the weapon. Lastly, this weapon has a much smaller gimbal than most other weapons, meaning you have to turn the ship much more to aim the weapon.
So if you like sniping or want a dedicated support weapon, this will do just fine. The M version also triggers capital shield delay.

3.2 Boson Lance: A Split version of the Mass Driver which gets rid of the massive range and zoom effect, slightly increases projectile speed and replaces heat with a clip system, giving you 2 shots before having to reload for 15 seconds. This makes it a really nice support weapon, considering its lack of heat, just like with the Shard Battery. I don't really have much to say here except it also has a very reduced gimbal, so if you want extra damage without further reducing heat cooldown or want it on heat inefficient shi, then this is a pretty nice weapon. Also unlike the Mass Driver, it fires normally, click to shoot. The M version also triggers capital shield delay.

3.3: M Ion Pulse Railgun: This weapon is a bit more special as it is a railgun with special effects! Ooh!
This weapon has an unusually high fire rate with heat generation high enough to give you only 5 shots before overheat. This gives it by far, the highest burst damage, like, ever, somehow rivaling that of literal Capital destroyer weapons, but of course, that heat makes that damage go from some 1600 all the way down to, uhh... ~200 in sustain. Yeah, its really weird. I dont really even think you can use this as a main weapon, instead exclusively relegating it to support. Also, it is worse against hull, so that damage is also lower once the shields are gone. It also triggers capital shield delay.

[/list]

4. The Great Escape Disablers™: These weapons are primarily used to inhibit shield regeneration of S and M ships while also being much more effective at forcing a ship out of Travel Drive as they are 2-3x more effective at disrupting Travel Drives.

• 4.1: Thermal Disintegrator: This weapon is a Pulse Laser designed to partially phase through shields, thus dealing a bit of hull damage through shields. The reason i say "Pulse Laser" is mainly because of its damage, being similar to it. That's where the similarities end though because its purpose is a LOT different. First, the projectile has a property where it sticks to whatever it hits, dividing its damage and dealing it over the course of 9 seconds. Second, it is 2x as effective at disrupting travel drives than other weapons. These two things make this weapon more of a support weapon, aimed at keeping both shields and travel drive under a cooldown for at least 9 seconds. So if you're looking for a support weapon to pair with your main guns, this is a good option.

• 4.2: Muon Blaster: This weapon, on paper, seems like a really good weapon as it has the highest burst damage of any S weapon, along with okay-ish projectile speed. However, this is not really the case as it has the same sticky property of the Thermal Disintegrator, with its duration being 12 seconds. This makes it too slow to quickly kill anything as its damage is spread over 12 seconds. Additionally, it is a bit less effective once it's hitting hull, so keep that in mind. Now, this weapon's main purpose is the same as the Thermal's, to disable Travel drives quicker and to inhibit shield delay, with it being 3x more effective at disrupting Travel Drives, making it better than the Thermal in that regard.
  Overall, if you're looking for an anti-Travel and anti-shield delay support weapon with a bit more damage while not caring about the partial shield phase of the Thermal, then this is pretty good.

5. The Great Beams™: These weapons are 100% real beams, meaning they're hit-scan weapons. However they all have innate beam oscillation (the beam equivalent of spread)

• 5.1. Beam Emitter: This weapon is in direct competition with the Pulse Laser since it has a higher range of 4.8 km with the downsides of being weaker against hull, lower accuracy because of its beam spread and more heat generation. This makes it more suited for long-range combat or as a surefire way to always deal damage as it is both hit-scan and as it's one of the few weapons to have such a high range.

• 5.2: S Burst Ray: This is a weapon highly specialized for deleting surface elements of a capital ship because most of it's damage phases through shields and is much more effective vs surface elements, thus obliterating surface elements within seconds. In regular combat it's pretty bad as it doesn't have the damage to compete. Pick this if you are going against capital ships.

5.3: Meson Stream: Yet another terran only weapon, this one is pretty interesting. Boasting an insane range of 8.5 km (10 if M), this gives it that same purpose as the Driver. However, while that can deal max damage at lower ranges, this cannot as it has inverse damage falloff. What that means is, the further away you are, the more damage it's going to deal. To put it in numbers, from ~4.6 km (5.5 if M) to max is where its going to deal max damage. Any lower than that, and its damage will gradually reduce to 30% of its original value, making it practically useless at sneezing range, which is something you will never say for... everything else.So if you plan to exclusively snipe or are planning to use it as a support weapon, then this is for you i guess. Just note that it has very high heat generation and somewhat slow-ish cooling speed.

6: Missile Launchers/Missiles: Missiles are only available to certain ships, which i will mention in the ship part of the guide. I'm not really the expert here as i don't use missiles that often, but i generally use Light Guided missiles the most as they have good damage with high enough speed. You can also increase the speed of the missiles by having your ship go faster as missiles inherit your ship speed upon launch, basically having you use missiles as javelins. Either way, I'd urge you to experiment with the missiles as i don't really know which one's best for what.

So, hopefully you now know what weapons you will try out and now all you're missing is something to put your engines, shields and weapons on. So, let's take a look at all the combat ships the game gives you, starting with Argon ships.

This section is a work in progress, ignore for now

The next few sections are all about ships and which ships you might like based on your preferred fight style.

As of 9.0, some ships how innately have heat, shield and travel stability modifiers. These will be mentioned on ships which have them

Speaking of Travel stability, that's a new mechanic which basically means that a ship can sustain a certain amount of damage before dropping out of Travel Drive. Pretty simple. S ships do not have this at all, they plop out instantly upon sensing a 0.1° difference in temperature, M ships can sustain 1500 damage, L ships 5000 and XL 15000 damage before plopping out like a bird.

The first ships are the S ships:

We are gonna start with Argon ships. Argon ships, like everything else Argon made, are average except for the Elite, which we will cover first.

• The Elite is i'd say the definition of an interceptor. It's damage is straight up pitiful to the point where you have to put a weapon stronger and more accurate than a Bolt Repeater, but it is extremely maneuverable, making it a very nimble and agile ship adept at avoiding getting shot at. However, what it's missing is forward speed. It is rather slow for such a nimble ship which can make temporarily escaping and recovering pretty difficult to do as many other ships can catch up to you. Even with SPL engines the Elite is pretty slow. In my opinion, this ship is rather bad because of the lack of damage and speed, so i will always pick some other ship.

• The Nova can be a straight up menace just because of one feature: rotating engines. This makes the ship's vertical strafe's max speed and acceleration the same as forward movement, meaning you can VERY effectively circle around ANY target and shower them in little pain pills while you are evading 90% of what they throw at you because you are constantly altering your heading by circling your target. This combined with 2 weapons and 1 shield does make it an absolute menace. It is quite literally THE dogfighting king, so yeah. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• The Eclipse is a ship with which you will for sure be pretty happy with. Pretty responsive for a heavy fighter, great firepower with 4 weapons, drift is pretty manageable and very survivable. Overall, a ship with above average performance. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• The Quasar is a fine heavy fighter with only 1 shield and pretty good hull, but it is very responsive for a heavy fighter, more so than the Eclipse, with the same 4 weapons as the Eclipse. The problem though arises from the new +30% heat modifier, making all weapons produce 30% more heat than normal, which is... not really good, especially for a ship which is not exactly great. But oh well, balancing be damned sometimes. It is rather cheap to get, so it is a nice alternative to the Eclipse.

• The Pulsar exists for that sweet sweet dakka because it has 6 weapons! This makes this ship the strongest S fighter in the game. Also it is, interestingly enough, slightly faster than the Nova. However, the +40% heat generation makes its sustained damage so much worse, so make those burst shots count!
  If you can evade enemy fire like a fly or if you want to mix multiple different weapons together in one ship, pick this ship. you will NOT regret it. (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state)

Now we're gonna look at some Argon M ships, of which are only 2:

• The Cerberus is a frigate with 3 shields, 2 weapons, 4 turrets and an S dock, meaning it can carry an extra S ship or a couple of defense drones to help it distract the enemy a bit. It is quite on the slow side, but its still a pretty good ship with pretty controllable drift. However, It's pretty big profile makes it a giant bullet sponge for enemy fire, much like most of the other M ships, but this one is especially bigger because of its S dock/hangar, so don't expect to live when up against 10 S ships (I'm not saying its impossible, just don't expect it). Also this ship can equip 2 missile launchers. It also has +30% increased heat generation for some reason, so yeah.

• The next and last Argon M ship is the Minotaur, a gunboat with 4 turrets put in such a way that the ship has 360 degree coverage all the time and 2 weapons. Basically, it's a Cerberus that sacrifices the S dock, 1 shield generator, a bit of speed and a bit of hull to make the ship constantly fire at the enemy without caring about if the enemy is in front of it or anywhere freaking else. However, the ship is a fair bit more drifty which makes it a really nice target to hit. There is a Raider variant available to SCA which remove 2 turrets and some hull for more speed. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

That is it for the Argon S and M ships. Let's move onto the Paranids.

In short, almost all Paranid ships have less shields for more speed and hull integrity.

S ships:

• The Perseus is quite similar to the Nova, but some things are still noticeably different. First, the Perseus doesn't have rotating engines. Instead, it is about 1.5 times faster than the Nova, but it's slightly less maneuverable than the Nova and has more drift than the Nova. Second, it has more hull integrity than the Nova. If you want more speed from a fighter and the extra drift is okay for you, then this ship is for you. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• Next up is the Theseus heavy fighter, which is a slightly weaker, but more agile Eclipse. It sacrifices 1 shield and 1 weapon for extra speed, steering, responsiveness and potentially less drift. Additionally, it also has a -20% heat generation, meaning your weapons will generate slightly less heat while firing, which does give this ship a nice edge in that regard. All in all, a more evasive and colder Eclipse with a profile slightly more prone to getting hit.

• And last but not least is the Ares heavy fighter. This one is only available from the HOP. It sacrifices speed and maneuverability in order to be a powerful fortress. It has 4 weapons and 3 shields, making it very tanky and able to pack a punch. This ship is near perfect for a tactic i like to call the "Spear" tactic in which you receive a lot of enemy fire, but you deal even more damage to the enemy. If you like the idea of becoming a tank, this is one of the best ships for you.

M ships:

• The Gorgon is imo just a better Cerberus. It has the same 3 shields, 2 weapons and 4 turrets, but it increases the hull and speed at the expense of a few degrees less maneuverability. It's just a straight upgrade from the Cerberus so yeah, take this if you want an upgrade from that Cerberus (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state). Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• The Nemesis is a pretty good all-round corvette, featuring 2 shields, 5 weapons, 2 turrets and i guess enough hull integrity, BUT with pretty low acceleration. This means that your boost will take longer to ramp up, meaning it will be harder to avoid getting hit AND will make your boost management a much bigger issue. Also it has a +30% heat generation, making it worse in the sustain field. Luckily its drift is pretty manageable so there's that. I personally enjoy fighting in this corvette as it is just a good little boi and is a good ship while i can't get the Katana or Hydra. Take this ship if you can't decide between all the other corvettes that exist since this is a good starter corvette for anyone who rarely tried out corvettes.

Now that the Paranid are done let's quickly take a glance at all the fighters from the Vigor Syndicate, which only have S ships, no M ships from these, unfortunately.

• First is the Kyd, which is THE cheapest combat ship in the game, but it's a little... clunky. Its the least maneuverable and the slowest fighter with quite some drift added in (for a fighter) for good measure. That is what you get with such a low price i guess...

• The Lux is a Kyd which removed 2 thirds of it's hull to add an extra engine, thus making it faster than the Perseus. But it's still just as clunky as the Kyd. The ship is responsive, but its turn rate is... slow for a fighter, so when you start turning you think you will quickly turn to your target because of the responsiveness, but you end up awkwardly waiting for the ship to turn. If you favor speed over the clunkiness, this is the ship for you. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• And finally we come to a ship that is quite similar to the Ares... the Shih. Pronounce it how you will, but this ship is a... worse Ares. It has the same 3 shields and 4 weapons, but it has increased hull and speed than the Ares, but it's much less maneuverable, meaning its... clunky yet again. It now also has 10% less shield capacity overall for... some reason, probably to differentiate it even more from the Ares. If you like the slight speed increase, i guess you can take the Shih.

So, the Paranid favour speed over damage and survivability with the exception of the Ares and the VIG have a clunky array of ships. Anyways, lets move onto the Teladi ships

In general, Teladi like to be bricks. What i mean by that is that they are quite slow in order to be tankier. Also, they only have 1 fighter and 1 heavy fighter which makes sense because teladi don't like to fight, they like to trade.

S ships:

• The Falcon is one of the only fighters that has 2 shields, alongside the Mamba and Takoba. Other than that, it is essentially a slightly slower version of the Nova with extra survivability. The Falcon also has the rotating engines... but they are for some reason only decoration. They dont serve that function of vertical strafing for some reason, dont ask me why the rotating engines here are pure decoration, while the ones on the Nova are actually functional...
  So, if you want to live somewhat longer and don't care about speed or the rotating engines, this is for you.
  And -20% heat generation, yay.

• The Buzzard is a Theseus with less speed and maneuverability for an extra shield slot. The reason for you wanting this is the same with the Falcon. It also has a -20% heat generation so it can fire its weapons for a bit longer (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state)

M ships:

• The Osprey is a ship to which i ask the following question... WHYYY!?! This Tungsten brick of a ship has 2 weapons, 4 turrets, 3 shields and heavily increased hull which in turn makes this ship so freaking, incredibly, ridiculously, straight up horribly
  sloooooooww...
  This... thing is twice as slower than a Cerberus with the best engines that exist AND it's travel speed is also horrible, EVEN WITH THE BEST TRAVEL ENGINES. Like, your GRANDPA can outrun this thing.... I'm just so-ho dissapointed... At least it can have repair drones so it lives longer i guess. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• Now we move on from the horribleness into the somewhat good ship called the Peregrine. Imo it's a straight upgrade from the Minotaur because of more speed and hull. There isn't that much to talk about this ship so we're just gonna move on (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state). Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher. Also also -20% heat generation, so a bonus good stat!

Now let's see the Split ships. There are quite a few of them and most of them ditch the 2nd shield slot for more hull, speed and the dakka and also like to run hot cuz ofc.

S ships:

• Starting with the Asp. The Asp is a great joy to fight in. Speedy, agile and powerful, this thing will dish out damage AND not get hit a million times. Its only downsides is that it's the driftiest fighter, but it's still a fighter, meaning that even that drift is easily mitigated with very short boosts and clever maneuvering. However, now it has been lightly nerfed with a +20% heat generation, making it slightly worse at sustain Overall, a ship that feels great and fights great. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• Secondly, we have the Asp Raider which is the Asp on steroids. Almost 3 times less hull for a bit more speed, much more turn rate and MUCH less drift. This thing is a contender for THE player ship and it is definitely possible for it to destroy a pack of 20 S ships with clever evasion. The only other thing that might hold it off is its +20% heat generation, but if you can manage heat pretty well, then this is not a problem. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• After that MENACE of a ship, we have the Mamba. Available from both Split factions, it is the only Split S ship that has 2 shields, but because of this, it only has 2 weapons, so it isn't as strong. It is slightly slower than the Asp so if you are willing to sacrifice a weapon slot for shields or if you want to upgrade from a Nova or a Perseus, this is for you. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• Next up is the Balaur. Available from the Free Families, it is a very smooth ship to fly. Like, a VERY smooth ship. Better than the Eclipse at dogfighting, that's for sure. With 4 weapons, 1 shield, great speed and good enough steering it is a breeze to fly, decimating everything and everyone who dares challenge it. The best thing about it is the drift, or more precisely, lack thereof. It's got so little drift it's comparable to a Perseus or maybe even the Nova. And that's a FEAT for a heavy fighter.
  If you want overall smoothness and 4 weapons, this ship will feel great and will be great for you.

• The 4th S Split ship is the Chimera. It features 5 weapons, 1 shield, a lot more speed and a lot more drift. This means that it's not the best choice for dogfighting, BUT it is still doable if you can control the additional drift of the ship by either equipping TER engines or with certain techniques. To add onto this, it now has a +30% heat generation which you really feel, especially with 5 weapons. While it might not be great for dogfights, it is great for hit and run stuff with heavy hitting, single shot weapons like plasma cannons, blast mortars etc. because with hit and run you dont care about the ship's driftiness as you'll be well out of the enemy's range most of the time. So, if you want to ZOOM in and out or if the DRIFT excites and challenges you, pick this ship.

M ships:

• The Dragon is a Nemesis which ripped it's 2nd shield off, made it's acceleration even worse, added a 6th weapon, having +40% heat generation (which is insanely bad) and introduced more drift. This makes the Dragon a heavier Chimera, essentially making it even more specialised for hit and run tactics and even worse at dogfighting. It is an effective glass cannon which has been lubricated a bit too much and is now spinning uncontrollably towards the sun.. Either way, if you're a fan of the hit and run tactic/s, this ship could be pretty damn good for it. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

• The Cobra is a mix of the Gorgon and Osprey with a sprinkle of Split design and technology. Basically, it has a lot more hull, more speed and an extra weapon slot at the expense of the 3rd shield that most frigates come with. This is a pretty nice ship if you want to fire slightly more missiles and if you want that speed. (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state)

Now we see that the Teladi are bricks and the Split are feathers armed with multiple tank cannons and netherite armor who only have shields for decoration i guess. Onwards to the Terrans!

Terran ships are in general slow, more expensive and have sub-par hull integrity, but are the only ships able to put Terran weaponry and as such can potentially be very strong. They also like to run pretty cold with -20% to -30% heat generation, so pretty nice.

S ships:

• The first ship is the Kukri. Available from both the Protectorate and the Pioneers, it is a fighter with 1 shield slot, 3 weapons and average hull integrity. Although slow, it is a rather maneuverable fighter with not a lot of drift, but it does have some issues with acceleration. Also, as it is a terran ship, it can mount the special terran weapons which does make it a bit more powerful than some other, similar ships. If you want the terran weapons on a pretty maneuverable (but slow-ish) fighter with a nice and small profile, this is for you.

• Next up is the Takoba, which can be bought from the Pioneers. With it's 2 weapons, 2 shields and excellent speed it is a very nimble fighter with pretty low drift. Yet again, another great contender for dogfights, especially with the terran weapon it gets to equip. If you want an Asp but with more shields and less weapons, terran weapons and steering between it and it's Raider variant, the Takoba is an excellent choice.

• The third ship is the Gladius. It is a very slow heavy fighter with 2 shields and 4 weapons, but it is also quite a smooth ship to fly. It might not have much turn rate, but it is not a drifty ship at all. (Guess those wings of his really do serve a purpose).And again, terran ship=terran weapons, so really powerful.

• The last Terran S ship is the Kalis heavy fighter which wants to survive for as long as possible and doesn't want damage. This is because it has 4 shield generators, making it the most shielded S ship in the game. Along with this, it is somehow faster than the Gladius and also has very manageable drift because it has so little of it. This ship is great for long, sustained fights because of it's 4 shields with which it can simply boost away temporarily to regain it's SWAT shield back in 20 seconds and then go right back into battle. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

M ships:

• The Falx is an interesting frigate which has... 6 engines. Yeah, that is... a lot. But that unfortunately doesn't mean it's anything fast, it's in fact rather slow. It does mean it has the best acceleration of all M ships though! Other than that, it is a more weapon-focused frigate as it has 4 main weapons and 2 turrets. It is also pretty drifty, meaning you will have to fix your heading a fair bit more. Still, it is a great frigate, especially as it can mount terran weapons.

• The Katana is a REALLY fast ship which means that you get to drift a lot, even though your strafe acceleration is better than on the Falx. It also has worse yaw and pitch, but better roll than the Falx so do with that what you will. But now, the speed. As i said the Katana is REALLY fast and what i mean by that is that it reaches >600 m/s with the WORST ENGINES!!! and >1000 m/s with the BEST ENGINES!!! This is... ridiculous. Like, REALLY ridiculous. It does make it excellent at hit and run, either with the Mesons or some other single shot weapon. So, if you like hit and run, terran weapons and being on drugs (DISCLAIMER: Drugs are bad, pls dont do drugs you'll be alone and die a miserable death), this is the only ship that you will ever use. This ship also doesn't have the decreased heat generation, which is interesting

• The Jian is... a gunboat which, like other gunboats, dies pretty quickly. There's not much else to say except that it's got 6 turrets which are all put on only 1 side of the ship which basically means the ship doesn't have a 360° turret coverage, it has a 180° turret coverage. But that is kinda... okay? Idk, i only use this ship to put 6 additional turrets on a capship with at least 1 M dock.
  It can have 1 Meson though... (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state). Also this ship can equip 2 missile launchers. This ship also doesn't have the decreased heat generation, which is interesting

Now that the Terrans are done, we can move on to the last race, the Boron, which all have increased Travel Drive stability thresholds, making them more stubborn with plopping out of travel, and this now extends to their S ships too!.

• Firstly is the Mako. It is a very responsive, very non-drifty ship with great speed and... horrible boost. Yeah, remember what i said about boron engines? Yeah, that is still relevant. Additionally, the Mako is so maneuverable you actually MIGHT (big might) have more trouble evading shots than if it had less. But that's more subjective, so see for yourself. Still, it's a good ship just because of the special Boron weaponry and shielding, i give it a solid 7/10.

• And lastly is the Barracuda. This ship is now pretty fine as you can finally put something better than BOR engines. This is the BOR equivalent of the Ares and Shih, with it having 3 shields and 3 weapons. Some would say that this is the Holy Trinity!
  Either way, now that you can switch out of the BOR engines, this ship can actually potentially be good. It is still lacking in acceleration, making boosts feel a bit more sluggish than usual. Overall, could be nice if you know how to fly it. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

M ships:

• The Hydra is a very good competitor to the Katana as the ultimate player ship since it has a gigantic amount of shielding (~27 000 with the best Boron shields) and 4 good weapon slots. If you put 4 Ion Pulse Railguns, you can get rid of anything S and M in under a minute, of course if you have a steady enough aim. If you cant aim that good, you can always either take 4 Atomizers or 2 Phase cannons and 2 Atomizers, that is also gonna work good. Also, it has the turn rate AND the drift of a heavy fighter instead of a corvette (which makes it very maneuverable for a corvette) so yeah.

• I don't have that much experience with the Thresher since i rarely used a gunboat and why i rarely used a gunboat is because i like to control my weapons, not them being AI controlled. However, i can still give you a brief overview of the ship, so let's do that. The Thresher has 1 weapon slot, 2 shields, slightly larger speed than that of the Hydra and 8 turrets. Yeah, 8. Because of the sheer amount of turrets, it is quite an effective anti-fighter ship, especially if you put Arc turrets. For some, it is the cooler Jian, while for others, they like a different gunboat more than the Thresher (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state). Also this ship can equip 2 missile launchers. This ship also has a 15% decrease in shield recharge rate so, umm, yeah.

So the Boron have a big emphasis on steering and shielding more than anything else. Let's move on to the last part of this section group.

This last section for ships will cover all the S and M ships that either aren't sold by anyone, you have to complete a plot/DLC to get, you have to capture to get, is a Yasur or a combination of 2 or more.

The Yasur:

This ship, if you didn't know already, is only available through Ventures, so if you haven't played the Ventures beta or you haven't purchased the Community of Planets Collector's Edition, you're not gonna see this ship anywhere in your game. Anyways, this is a really good player ship since it has special engines which give the Yasur a LOT of speed, both in standard and travel mode, it has 4 weapons (2 of which are special Yasur weapons), a special shield generator which is basically the best S shield generator in the game and incredibly high maneuverability. Yes, this boi is as maneuverable as a Mako which is quite a feat to accomplish. So, if you want to be very fast, strong and durable, pick this ship (if you have it). (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state)

Timelines ships:

S:

• The Cutlass is an S ship with fine shielding, good maneuverability, basically no drift and 2 pretty good weapons. It is a bit on the slow side, but other than that it's pretty good. It also has -15% heat generation. Not much else to say soo...

• The Xperimental Shuttle. The ship that started the entire X series. Many people have fond memories of them playing X: BTF for the first time and what a blast the game was back then... not me though, i didn't even exist back then in any form. At least i played X2...
  ...Where was i? OH, yeah, the X-Shuttle. Yeah, its a beast. 6 weapons, either put the Gamma HEPT or the EM gum and you're good to go. It's shield is unique and POWERFUL, none quite like it. Steering is EXCELLENT and the speed is also EXCELLENT. Aaand that's it. It's so good that there's no need for further discussion. Just, have fun with it. Also this ship can equip 1 missile launcher.

M:

The Odachi is a ship that's actually in between an S size and an M size, and that means it's VERY maneouverable for an M ship, VERY small for an M ship and thus VERY evasive for an M ship. This can basically be an oversized Cutlass with very strong EM cannons, basically no drift and great shielding. It does suffer in acceleration, it being pretty low. Still, a great ship for fighting a whole bunch of things.

Xenon ships:

S:

The F is a pretty fine S ship. It's got good hull, fine weapons, enough shielding, good travel speed. Now, do you see a problem here? Its a "meh" ship because its just average, if not less, at almost all aspects except one: its speed. 194 m/s max, which is pretty damn bad. Overall, it is a usable ship and, if you dont have any other ship or just really want to use it, then yeah, take it. (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state)

M:

The PE is an interesting corvette which doesnt have an overabundance of weapons as other corvettes. 2 weapons, 2 turrets, ~450 m/s max speed and 1 XEN shield. Now, the weapons it can equip are impulse projectors which, while against S ships it is strong, against M ships it is pretty lackluster. Couple that with only 1 shield and you got a glass cannon, but the cannon is made out of rubber. For me, it isnt really that good of a ship and i would pick something else. (didnt personally fly in 7.5, data might deviate from current ship state)

Yaki ships (Both if these have high Travel Drive stability):

S:

The Moreya is the only Yaki S ship which is a Pegasus made for combat. Most people like this ship very much because it is speedy, has good hull integrity and has 4 weapons. The speed of this thing, the hull and its very controllable drift pretty much overshadow the 1 shield generator this ship has. It's strengths make this ship really good for dogfighting, Hit and Run tactics and other more aggressive tactics. It does have a slight handicap in the form of +20% heat generation, but you can probably shrug that off quite easily.

M:

The Kuraokami is a Nemesis with more speed and less drift at the expense of less turn rate. The only 2 things that is on both is the very bad acceleration and +30% heat generation. Unfortunately nothing much more to say here so if you're fine with the compromise, take it.

Now that we're done with all these ships, let us move on and learn a bit about your main tool for positioning, engaging and disengaging in fights, the Boost, shall we?

As of 7.5, boost has been seperated from shields and now uses its own energy bar. This means that you can boost at any time, no matter the state of your shields. But do note that there is a global recharge delay for that new energy bar AND that you can start boosting when you have a minimum of 10% energy left. The main purpose of this is to prevent "microboosting" (or smth like that), but it also punishes you for using boost too frequently to an extent.

Additionally, boost has gotten a new hidden stat called "Coast". This stat makes it so you decelerate much slower after boosting and NOT hitting the "stop engines" button. This happens in a certain time period which is determined by a different stat. All this combines to a term called "Coasting" which is: An effect that kicks in after boosting where the rate of deceleration is greatly reduced over a given time period. It is important to remember that stopping engines AKA hitting the "Stop Engines" button (Usually backspace) completely skips the "Coasting" and goes straight to reducing speed as fast as possible. This is also highly dependant on the type of engine you took

So, we still have to know when and for how long to hold the boost button (The "for how long" part greatly differs depending on the type of engine you took).

The three main actions that we can do with the new boost are: engaging the enemy, fixing our heading/evading shots and fleeing from the enemy

First, engaging the enemy. Depending on the type of engine you took, you will have to boost for longer or shorter times. You usually engage your enemy if you've picked a fresh target or if your target has boosted/is boosting away from you and you have to catch up. The latter part usually happens in a dogfight, while the former at any time. Keep in mind that if your engine has a lower boost capacity compared to other engines, you will have to keep track of how much you're boosting so that you dont end up using all your boost energy and getting yourself stranded in a sea of red blips.

Second: Fixing your heading/Evading shots. This is for the times when you're drifting a lot and you want to go to where you're actually looking at. Generally, you wont have to boost a lot as it does require little power to actually fix your heading. However, if you want to be mobile and go for the "No hit any% speedrun", you can also use your boost to do exactly that. You can also boost slightly via strafing which additionally helps you evade shots. Also, if you picked a ship with rotating engines (Nova, Falcon, Guillemot) vertically strafing will make you boost in that direction (Or a 45° angle if you still want to go forward) meaning that strafing down/up for a second and then switching strafes will make you go in a zigzag motion almost instantly, effectivelymaking you immune while youre boosting. But if you don't have rotating engines, you can still turn in random directions to get the same effect. You can also slightly adjust your throttle/stop engines so that you decelerate much quicker which also aids you in evading shots. So, the TLDR of this is: Drifting? Boost a little. Don't want to get hit? Look randomly and boost there for a bit.

And third: Fleeing from the enemy. This will usually happen when you're in critical shape OR (If you want to do a 100% hull left any% speedrun) have very little shields left and if you are running out on boost energy and want to safely recharge it. Nothing much to say here, just boost for as far as possible (8-12 km is a reasonable distance, 5-6 km is about minimum only if you are faster than your enemy OR if you turned on travel mode AND you are tracking the target's speed). Do note that if you go too far (>12 km, sometimes at 10 km), the enemy will most certainly go into travel mode, so be careful.

And there, thats boosting done yet again, now we go on to learning how to actually not get hit by a stray microplastic that has been sitting in the ocean for decades and has just now decided to rupture your lungs open so you have a 1% harder time breathing.

So now you got all the hardware at your disposal, all free for you to start using. So you start using it AKA you go ahead to kill some xenon. Then you realise... you... died? wha- hu- how- wh-
What happened?
Well, you just fell victim to the oldest "trick" in the book: those reddish lines you saw? Yeah, they hurt. And when something can hurt, it can usually kill... In other words, you have no idea how to evade.
So, i'll teach you some useful stuff in most/some circumstances

First the simple things: you can use your boost to evade shots. I already explained this in the last section, so there's no need to further dwell on this.

Next up is to start strafing in random directions. This gives enemy weapons a sudden change in heading, meaning that they will miss more often until you reach your max strafe speed in that direction. This is why you have to quickly switch between strafing directions, to keep the enemy guessing. BUT you must not switch too quickly because merely pressing or holding the strafe key/s for less than a second is not gonna get you anywhere because you have to factor in that strafe has acceleration to worry about. BUT just remember that some boost also carries over to your strafes if you're holding a strafe button while boosting, so you can also do that to evade

Third in line is to eliminate as much drift as possible. You'll learn how to do this after this section, but as a rough explanation of why drift is usually bad, here it is: Drift makes you keep you previous heading BEFORE the ship corrects itself. This makes the ship predictable, so the more drift your ship has, the more predictable your ship gets. And the more predictable a ship gets, the easier it gets for weapons to shoot you down. So, to avoid getting shot down, you have to lower that drift because then your ship is less predictable which gives enemy weapons a harder time to hit you. As i said, exactly how to lower that drift you will learn after this section, so just bear with me.

After that comes mixing up your steering and strafing. This means that you either constantly change your heading, making your ship less predictable or take one direction and just steer in that direction, like up. Of course, depending on how maneuverable and drifty your ship is, you will have to alter/modify them to match the ship's playstyle, but generally, this will make you less predictable. You can also add rolling to further make your ship less predictable so you do a kind of spring shaped movement. You can also do zig-zag motions for obvious reasons.

Now with these tips and tricks you might see an improvement in your evasive skills. But, as always, know that you need to PRACTICE to perfect your evasion skills, as with everything else.

Remember the third point, the one about "drift". Yeah, its time for that one now.

This will be a quick section to help you eliminate drifting as much as possible if either: you are having trouble controlling the TOKYO DRIFT or: the ship is an uncontrollable mess to fly (or both, both are always possible).

...There is one specific enemy that everyone is constantly fighting against, whether it be in the heat of combat or trying to do a simple trade run. It is one enemy that never goes away, nor is ever fully eradicated. Its ALWAYS there, no matter what...

And its for some reason extremely fun to experience it. Idk why.
Ok, so you are flying a chimera and are thinking: "chimera is literally unusable in dogfight with tne new flight mechanics" (found in discord,, source was without special effects, typo intact). You probably think this because it tends to just... not go where you're looking. Like, it takes a good amount of time for it to actually go where you're looking at. And now you're just thinking how you just cant use the Chimera anymore cuz its an uncontrollable beast...

Well, good thing i exist, right?... right..?

Whatever your answer to that is, i'm gonna go over some things you can do to minimize as much of the drift as possible, thus giving you more control to the so called "uncontrollable beast".

First thing is a simple one: take TEL or TER engines or avoid SPL engines. As i said in the engines section, TEL and TER engines reasonably decrease the amount of drift a ship has, thus making the ship much more maneuverable. On the opposite end of the spectrum, SPL engines GIVE you MORE drift, making the ship an even bigger pain to fly effectively, so if you just can't stand drifting, avoid SPL engines. Pretty simple step, right?

Second thing is to boost a little to the heading you wanna take. This will drain your boost meter a bit (or a lot, depending on how strong the boost is), but it will fix your drift problem

Third thing is to lower your speed when you're getting close to your target or are expecting to start turning. This will minimize how much drift you get as you're not moving as fast, thus giving the DRIFT less energy to work with and giving the ship a much easier time to correct the drift.

Fourth and last boi is: if you have to do a near 180° turn cuz you either overshot or the enemy boosted behind you, stop your engines, turn around and then start going towards the enemy. You do this so that you: a) Don't add any additional drift at unwanted directions, and b) use your engines instead of thrusters to eliminate the drift which are much stronger than your thrusters. Note that if you are getting targeted by multiple ships at that moment you will have to alter this move a bit with stuff like: boosting for 1-2/3 seconds mid-turn OR boosting when you completed your turn. Alternatively, you can also turn FA off instead of stopping engines, this does retain your previous speed, but might be potentially safer in some situations.

And there, hopefully these things will help you eliminate drift as much as possible. Now you will actually have to learn about AI. I know, im sorry, but i assure you its really important...

NO YOU'RE NOT GONNA LEARN CHATGPT, DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT

This section is gonna tell you some habits of the combat AI and how we can use some of these habits to our advantage.

BUT before you read any of this, keep in mind that this i found out mostly fighting Xenon ships, meaning that their "pilots" always have 5 stars which means that you might not have the same experience with, say, an Argon ship. So keep in mind that the AI is different with different star numbers on pilots other than Xenon or Khaak.

The very first thing that i am gonna mention is when an enemy is following you. So, when both you and the enemy is in travel mode and the enemy has higher travel speed than you, the enemy AI doesn't seem to want to intercept you. Instead, once it is about 10 km away from you, the AI is gonna lower its travel speed to be the same as your travel speed. This is good to know so that when you plopped into travel mode to recover, you don't need to worry about the enemy catching up to you and disabling your travel drive. As long as you stay in travel drive, you will be fine. However, there are times when the AI becomes smart and stays in travel drive until he hits you. (REQUIRES FURTHER TESTING AS OF 7.5)

I have a feeling the above doesn't work anymore, so im gonna give you a different thing instead.
One good thing to note that the enemy will most likely engage travel mode when: IF the enemy is an S ship and you're slower than it: you're about 10 km away from it. If you're faster it is possible for the enemy to engage it BEFORE 10 km so it catches up to you. So if you're faster than your target, it is generally a good idea to be somewhere in between the enemy's weapons' range and 7 km.
If your target is an M ship then 10-15 km is a good limit distance to be in, mostly because they have increased range on their weapons. Still, it all depends on the weapons and speed of your enemy. A VERY rough formula would be that the max distance you can be away at is about 2x the enemy's firing range. But yet again, this part is all about the FEEL and experience.

Another travel drive thing is that if you make a sharp 90 degree turn in travel mode via the use of Flight Assist off, the enemy will automatically disengage their travel drive to fix their direction. You can also use this to your advantage in order to give yourself more time to recover. Also remember, the closer you are to the enemy, the bigger the chance that this trick is going to work. So if you are about 20 km away from them, this trick is gonna have a near 100% success rate, while if you are 60 km away, it's gonna be more like a 60% success rate. However, one thing to note is that this trick also depends on the enemy's turn rate in travel mode. If it can't really turn that well, then you got no problem. BUT of he is pretty maneuverable in travel mode, this trick will have a lower chance of working. Just keep that in mind.

If the enemy passes through both of these tricks, you will still have one more tool at your disposal in order to not die. Flight assist is very useful for the exact situation when the enemy disables your travel drive. This is because it drastically increases the amount of time required to decelerate from your travel speed to your standard max speed. You can also turn off FA when boosting as it effectively does the same thing as with the travel drive (As of 7.5, FA off BYPASSES the coasting mechanic of boosting, meaning you might get less deceleration (good thing) if you keep FA on for the duration of the coast, after which you turn it off). Just remember to turn it back on after you have gotten away if you cant effectively fight with FA off.

When in battle, the enemy likes to boost away once he has gotten very close to his target or if his target has gotten very close to the enemy. This, if you are in perfectly healthy condition, can sometimes be irritating, but if you are in bad condition, you can actually use this in order to buy yourself some time to re-enable your travel drive or recharge your shields. You do this by running into the enemy. Yeah, i'm not joking. Sometimes you gotta take a few risks in order to survive. What this will do is force the enemy to boost away from their effective range thus giving you some time to further run away to recover. This trick also works with multiple enemies as well! But you have to make sure that you either run into all of them OR keep all of them close together so they all run away without much effort and time wasted. So if there's a swarm of Xenon M's, just run into them!

For now, that is it for AI, next up we will focus on strategies that you can use and ultimately decide which strategy will work best for you.

This section is all about what to expect when going against a specific race (or faction, idk), giving you a rough idea of what equipment to put on what chassis to keep you smooth-sailing through every battle.

And even if you want to stick to one loadout, this will still give you an idea of how to approach each faction so that you may come out victorious!

However, this section is a work in progress, but expect this to be written out in the near future.

As for now, just move on to the last section.

Alright, so you've grabbed the perfect shields, weapons, engines and of course, the perfect ship for you. You also now know how you can use the enemy AI to survive for longer. Now you just need to find the perfect strategy/tactic that you most resonate with and also learn some more tips and tricks to make the most out of the strategy. Let's begin.

The first one i'm gonna mention is the Hit and Run strategy. It's quite simple. close the distance on the enemy (preferably with boost), fire at the enemy for as long as you can and boost away. Rinse and repeat. This type of strategy is great for fast ships which just don't have enough shielding and hull to just dive-bomb to the enemy. Of course, other fast ships can do this too. Additionally, during the boost stage you can turn on travel mode to conserve your boost energy, but that is kinda in between the two types of Hit and Run strategies...

A variant of the Hit and Run strategy is one where you fight in... Travel Mode. Yes, i'm not kidding. Travel mode is actually useful for fighting. The way you do this is simple, but you will need to either: a) Take a ship with high acceleration; b) Take a ship with TER engines; c) Boost a bit to gain speed; or d) do some flight model trickery to get insane temporary travel acceleration.
When you got your method of gaining travel speed in 1-3 of your fingers, each dedicated (in order) to pressing the travel mode button, pressing the boost button and... (seems i put one finger too many...) we can move on to the simple process of fighting in travel mode. You go towards the enemy in travel mode with decent speed (Not too experienced guess: >1500 m/s), then you shoot them for as long as possible while STILL IN TRAVEL MODE. Then you gain some distance while STILL IN TRAVEL MODE. Rinse and repeat. If your travel drive gets disabled, boost away and wait for the little yellow engine to disappear. Don't have shields? wait a bit out of battle. This tactic is somewhat harder to pull off, but it is a show of some GOOD skill in my books so feel free to try it.

Next up is the most common tactic (or term), dog-fighting. This one is what you see every day, every hour, every minute, every second, every... milisecond... every...
Basically, you want to be as maneuverable as possible in order to not get hit. Because most weapons will be harder to aim since we have to be maneuverable, i would suggest picking weapons with either a high rate of fire, high projectile speed, high accuracy or a mix of the three. Also, a joystick, gamepad or, if you dont have both of these things, Elite Dangerous-like mouse steering is heavily recommended for this tactic because of the whole being maneuverable thing. You don't wanna suddenly run out of desk space mid-battle now, do you?
For the engines, it's really your choice. All of them are good in one way or another and each complements a different playstyle, so it's your choice. For the ship, i would recommend a ship that can decelerate very quickly, is very maneuverable and that doesn't have horrible max and boost speed. Some good examples are the Asp, Nova, Perseus, Takoba, Balaur and so on.

The third tactic in line is the Circler. Basically you circle around the enemy trying your best not to get shot, while you constantly rain boolets on them. This tactic is great for weapons who need to be close to the target in order to have max efficiency. The Nova is also a very good option for this because of its rotating engines. This one is quite easy to do since you just do W+M1... wait, why is that familiar...

Moving on from those... Ṕ̸̨͔̲̠͐̀̈͌͐͝y̸̌̌̿̍̍̂̚͜͠ṙ̸̗̳̥̦̬̲̬̲̳́͆͑̄̈͌̀̚o̵̡̼͖̪͐͌͛̌͂̂͒s̶̨̠̲̹̺̾́̀̓ we have the Spear. This one is basically what the AI does, do a beeline towards the enemy and shoot, slow down when you're getting close to maximize the amount of damage we do and then let the enemy boost away, we track the enemy down and engage in a dogfight (or don't, you can always keep doing this tactic again). For this one we heavily rely on shields to absorb all of the damage we receive and as such, this tactic has a high risk-high reward system. This is why we will take more shield heavy ships like the Ares, Shih, Kalis, Barracuda (...not so sure about that ship anymore...) and most M sized ships. Also i would recommend you put slower weapons with a lot of damage because both you and the enemy are gonna do beelines towards the opposite and so most shots will hit, no matter how slow or fast it is. Also remember, when making a beeline, strafe in random directions. This will reduce the amount of damage you will take to, let's say, 40%-50%. However, dont randomly mash WASD and expect to not get hit, instead you should hold each button for a short while (Max 1-2 seconds) so that your strafe can reasonably accelerate for you to reduce the number of times you get hit.

If you prefer to be a sniper rifle, take the Mass Driver, plant yourself very far from the battle, lead your enemy and shoot. Just keep at least one different weapon just in case if the enemy wants to kill you. You pick the ship for this one.

This is the end of the guide for now. If you have noticed anything incorrect or if you got another tactic/strategy, please let me know. This guide will probably get some updates in the future. So yeah, hope this helped and again, let me know how good or bad i made this thing. Until then, good hunting!